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A quarter of adult male prisoners have injected drugs, and 6% inject while in prison, according to a national survey of risk behaviours for transmission of bloodborne viruses among prisoners in England and Wales. Three quarters of those who inject drugs in prison share needles or syringes.

The survey, by researchers from the Public Health Laboratory Service, found that 3% of adult male prisoners have had penetrative sex with another man while in prison (Communicable Disease and Public Health 2000;3:121-6).